Sewing project

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I want to start looking better for when I am representing the Challenge at events, so I've finally got together everything I need (linen, linen thread, documentation of pattern, stitches and seams) to get cracking on my most period dress to date. Nothing fancy, just a linen under-tunic with 6 gores and armpit gussets, but I am really excited about it! I've done most of the cutting, and am going to embark on the neckline today; wish me luck!

Also,the A&S 50 growth spurt continues: we now have four Kingdom Coordinators, for Northshield, Aethelmearc, Ansteorra, and Lochac; and our fliers seem to have been a big success at Estrella (our yahoo group has grown 50% just this week!)

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Gilding!

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I helped run Mimir's Well this last weekend, and it went really well, for a first time. One of my duties was to recruit teachers, and I begged and pleaded well enough that **4** Scribal Arts teachers came from Aethelmearc to share their wisdom with us, and one of them taught GILDING!!!!

Long-time readers may know that trying gilding with real gold has been one of my Challenge goals from the very beginning, and now I have done it! The real loose leaf wasn't all that different from using the fake loose leaf stuff, but the patent gold is on a paper backing which is just WAY easier to work with, although thinner, so you need to put more layers. Gee shucks. ;) (I loved that part!)

The part that I thought was the absolute NEATEST was trying different period sizes or glues, to get the first layer of gold to stick to the paper/vellum/etc - I tried period gesso, fish glue and garlic juice glue (which stank the most). It was AWESOME, and THL Mea the Bold of Aethelmearc, actually included recipes for all of them in her little booklet that she gave us! She even sent us home with our gold scraps to make shell gold with (mix real gold scraps with gum arabic)!

I learned a bucket, and can tick off another big item off my Challenge wishlist. Hurray!!!! No one came to the A&S 50 meeting, but I had so much to do, I was ok with it. Folks know where to find me anyway...

I also put embroidery, spinning, my first lampworking, and a whole bunch of illumination doodles in the exhibition (which I ran, and which went great!)

Now we're gearing up for next year, and the same teacher says she'll come back and teach how to make both period pigments and period gesso! (She even gifted our local scribes, in the form of me, with a box full of vials of period pigments! OOOOOHHH!!! I can't WAIT to try those out with the crew!!!! Mea - you ROCK!!!)

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Progress!

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Forward momentum is officially happening! I've been working on our new site, both structure and content, and even - gasp - got into the studio yesterday, and set my first ever 14th Cent sleeves! (It was on an undergown, and I doubt I'll get an actual dress done for Crossroads to Canterbury, ie next weekend, so I probably won't even get to wear it, but *still*! And heck - it counts as a new thing too!!!)

And did I mention yet that we have a Yahoogroup now? Hurray! Folks are finding it, and are *starting* to chat some, so I'm feeling a bit less like things are languishing now. Random emails about folks' progress on their Challenges keep coming in, too, which can only be a good sign! :)

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Tally update and site results

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GNE this last weekend was LOVELY. I got to camp with localish folks that I didn't know well and now do, and, ta da! I got to watch a new lovely friend be inducted into the order of the Maunche (Kingdom level A&S) - vivat Robert of Stonemarche, calligrapher, embroiderer, and new voice herald of the East! Hurray!

I also added to my Challenge tallies - I taught pre-1300 weave structures again, ran a Challenge session, and learned how to Viking wire weave!

The new website is doing well too, in large part thanks to the constructive critiques of those on the Apprentice List. If you haven't looked at it since today (7/18) go take a fresh peek, especially at the first page; I've clarified the details of the Challenge itself and have even added a new twist to the Breadth Challenge - the "complete persona package" - 50 different things that one's persona would know, have, or know how to do. I got the idea tangentally from my friend Ardenia, (who was, incidentally, the only person to complete Master Henry McQueen's Challenge at Northern Lights a few years ago) since she had basically entered a megapent with things that all went with her ME dancing (garb, food, performance, make-up, you name it).

I thought this new addition might help give folks some focus in their search for new things, and might provide a more satisfying collection when completed than 50 unrelated things might do. No requirement to do this, just an idea. ;)

Anyway, the new site has had going on 140 hits just in the last few days, which is just amazing! I'm not really sure though, how to get folks to participate in the forums. So far Angelique and Ysemay are the only folks who have, as Ysemay put it 'joined me out on [my] limb.' I have posted 'starter' threads on most of the topics, but folks just don't seem to be taking the bait... Ideas, as usual, are MOST welcome.

Most interesting thing about the project today? I've been asked if I am available to meet with Challengers at *ESTRELLA*! My complete lack of understanding of the geography of the Known World is decidedly period - I didn't know that meant ARIZONA, and I certainly didn't know that was in the Kingdom of Atenveldt! (if I even spelled that correctly!)

I hopes that this Challenge was going to take me places, but I didn't anticipate foreign lands! :)

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Tally update

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As of this last weekend, and EK Northern Region War Camp, in the lovely Shire of Glenn Linn, I can add another class (I taught Keyhole Necklines again), another A&S 50 session (well attended!), another new thing (Lady Moreta showed me how to make Monk's Cord, but typing in such in google brings me anything BUT what I learned how to make), and another new piece of garb (a lovely green linen tunic for my girls that doesn't fit them - ack!- and so has been given to Lady Skya's lovely and as-yet-to-be-born Gwen).

I am *seriously* needing to find time in my day (after grading!) to do some garb sewing for the girls for war, and I'm scheduled to teach pre-1300 weave structures and run an A&S 50 session at Great North-Eastern War in Malagentia in less than two weeks (go Stonemarche!). I hope you'll join me there!

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Technological blues and EKU

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I'm having trouble converting my paper handouts (tapestry technique and pre-1300 weave structures) into downloadable PDFs, but I'll get it eventually. Meanwhile, the Laurel List has had its own technological issues, including having to switch database software *after* having input all the names and dates of elevation I had available (243 of them); at least the names converted over from Open Office to Microsoft Works, and I finished re-inputting the dates this morning.

This blog might not be showing it, but lots of work is going on behind the scenes!

EKU this last weekend in the brand new shire of Wyndhame (Southern Vermont) was small, but *lovely*. Lots of one-on-one time with teachers, and the chance to dig in up to our elbows on hands-on activities. I went to classes on Anglo-Saxon pottery, A&S documentation for competitions, and peer-student relationships, and taught a class on pre-1300 weave structures (Class tally = 3), and held a brainstorming session with Erlan on A&S 50.

And (drumroll please) I tried something new (New things = 1)! Erlan taught a class on lampworking, and I actually got to play with molten glass and made two beads! (Insert picture here soon! Must... find... camera...) Now I just really want to know how they made beads in period... since I somehow doubt they had MAPP gas!

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My Challenge Tally through Pantheria XII

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Ok, ok, no pictures, since I forgot to take any, and no new articles this week since I've been too busy getting my class together for EKU (pre-1300 weave structures). I WILL post pdfs of my tapestry handout, my weave structures handout, and the as-yet uncreated handout on nursing and baby garb/care in the SCA, but they will all have to wait until next week. Sorry!

I need to keep tabs on my Challenge progress though, since I'm officially making progress!

Classes:

1. Tapestry techniques at Pantheria XII
2. Garb for Nursing and Babies at P XII

(I am not counting kids A&S that I am just back up on, and no A&S 50 sessions)

Garb: (not including retrofits or alterations) **Pictures to come when I get them out of the laundry!**

1. new fighting pants for my husband (he looks much better now!)
2. baby - purple Eura dress (a conjectured design that uses every inch of fabric and looks great - gores from ankle to wrist, and sleeves that form the neckline!)
3. baby - green semi-Eura (I made gores from ankle to wrist, but regular sleeves)
4. baby- beige/white stripe dress with tan yoke
5. baby- beige/white stripe dress with tie closure
6. baby- salmon linen-blend tabard
7. baby- green plaid-front shift to match Daddy

New things:

.... nada. I taught five folks who had never spun before how to use a drop spindle, just informally in camp, though, and held my first A&S 50 session (and I do another one tomorrow), which went very well, so all is good. Plus, I got a handout on a Cloisonne class I didn't have time to attend, and hope to try it out someday. For those that don't know, that is the glass on metal technique that makes all of the cool medallions they hand out in court! Hurray!

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